Another Civil Service one...

[JobMatch3000]

Last time I worked for the CS (11 years ago in a "quango" rather than a Government department) there was automatic pay progression up the payscale.
I'm interested in returning to the CS and have seen a post advertised at £52-58k.
The bottom of that scale is the top of where I am currently - with no opportunity for further enhancement.
Could someone please advise if the CS still offer automatic pay progression or if £52k would be my set salary for the role.
(I'm sure I will have further questions to come). With many TIA.

For my organisation it’s a yearly increase until you hit the top of the scale.

Pretty much no automatic pay progression in the civil service any more. There'll be a pay award each year (unless frozen altogether) and for the department to decide in consultation with the unions how to spend it - increasing the minimum, moving people up the scale or increasing the maximum, generally. A lot of people stay on the bottom for a very long time

Pretty much no progression it's not like the NHS many jobs now have stopped advertising ranges because mostly people will start and stay at bottom end (depressingly).

Sounds very department specific. It would be DBT. Something to ponder on, thank you.

@Witchbitch20 are you a civil servant? That's good to hear but frustrating that it's so different across all departments.

I dont think DBT offer automatic pay progression anymore. I'm in a related dept and we were all bought out of our contracts around 8yrs ago. Although obviously since the merger of DIT and BEIS, there has had to be some harmonising of contracts so i dont think my info is out of date, but someone might come along and correct me. There might be some negotiation on starting salary in the band though, depending on how desperate they are to fill the role. Much more likely if you are coming back from external than an internal promotion.

@TonightMatthewIamgoingtobecher I am. Swings and roundabouts though isn’t it, once you’ve reached the top of the scale that’s where you are unless you look for promotion.

@JobMatch3000 something to ask at interview?

Thank you for your confidence I'll get to the interview stage! 🙂

£52k to £58k is the Grade 7 scale.
The general standard now for most government departments is that you remain on the bottom of the scale without incrementing, but you do get the percentage pay rise which is annual except for when there is a pay freeze.

The standard is to enter at the bottom of the scale and to aim for pay rises via promotion, which would be to the bottom of the next higher scale.

It’s theoretically possible to negotiate a higher entry point, or to promote to a higher point if your promotion wouldn’t get any higher than existing pay

Over the years some of the lowest grades pay scales have closed the gap of minimum to maximum by increasing the minimum each year, resulting in a single salary for the grade.
The intention has been to end up with one salary per grade, which will eventually happen as all the legacy staff who had incremented part way before the end of increments finally leave

Pay progression in the CS was removed/bought out in 2014 ish. It was George Osbourne as Chancellor of the Exchequer who mandated all depts had to get rid of time served progression.

Thanks all for the insight. Much appreciated. So as PP said, you could be there 6 months or 6 years and you would be paid the same. Doesn't seem particularly fair for time served employees.

I'm not sure there is anywhere on the application form to detail my existing salary anyway.

You dont put it in the application. It would be a discussion to have with the HR person if you were to be successful at interview.